[Robotgroup] Metal Card chips

[brooksdesign]

The standard size for the metal chips were 1" X 1.5" as the original chips were notch out scraps I use to get by the thousands when I worked at a solar panel manufacturing biz in south Austin about 30 years ago but now I cut the out on my shear to whatever size I want. I still go with that size as it works out the be just right for the hammer type stamper. 
  Making the hammer/punch style stamp involves a simple facing one end of a brass rod about .5" up to 1" and the painting the desiered image or text in reverse by hand with a tiny detail brush or more often a shaved down toothpick. Then suspending the image end in a jar of ferric chloride (pcb etching solution) for about an hour or 2. After rinsing, I grind off the edges down to a 4 sided bevel shape to help with ailingment and to keep the circle shape from scratching the chip as it is stamped. Then I clean off any remaining paint, give it a little buff with #0000 steel wool, check for flaws and make whatever corrections I can with a tiny bit on the Dremele tool and make and lable the first stamping. Stamping is done by placing the stamp end on the blank chip and feeling for solid, flat resting position and giving it a good WACK with the hammer and pressto.... a stamped chip. After a while I can get a good rythim going at about 1 chip every 2 seconds. Slow but effective. I have occasionaly made guide stands so the ailingment is more consistant and stamping a long strip every inch and a half makes for easier stamping and just cutting off the chips works as well but I like to make all the cuts first and run them thru the tumbler to deburr and take the corners down a bit for safety. That also gives them a bit of texture that makes the image stand out better. I'll have to experiment with my tumbler medium to get something that will surface and edges but not the impressions of the image for the roller style unless I can make a auto feed the can do them one chip at a time rather than the long strips.
-brooks 

-----Original Message-----
>From: Doug Emes <kyojin at gmail.com>
>Sent: Jun 5, 2008 10:20 AM
>To: robotgroup at puremagic.com
>Subject: Re: [Robotgroup] Metal Card chips
>
>> From: brooksdesign <brooksdesign at peoplepc.com>
>...
>>  Speaking of the card chips, what is the shortest permanent URL for TheRobotGroup.org that the group would want stamped out by the thousands. I will be experimenting with a new rolling stamper with power feed and cutting so all I have to do is cut the blank strips and load a whole stack in. I've repaired enough printing presses to be able to figure out a way to make a strip feeder,(blab blab blab). So if the group wants the metal card chips in mass all I will need is the metal sheets. Now that I think about it, with the roller stamper, the logo could be as long as we need. The hammer stamper had more rejects the larger the image area got.
>
>So what dimensions are your talking about? biz card size / smaller / larger?
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